Manfred von Skärva

She literally wrote the text, but I still came up with the idea for the comic itself.

Personally, I like the old art style better.

Altermentality:

Something seems different! Did a lightbulb go out in here or something?

Well, I’ve been looking at other webcomics lately and feeling inferior, so I decided to kick myself into high gear. I thought about saving this shift for a more important occasion, like the end of the Mire Manor plot, but why wait to improve yourself? This only took me like an extra hour or so. Hopefully I can keep it up >_> In addition to the obvious, I also changed the brush I use to draw. It allows for more variation in line width, I think, I just have to use it carefully.

Also messing around with speech bubbles/squares so they look less TOTALLY BORING. Our text has so much character but the bubbles themselves are lame. Lately I introduced a little flavor with Posti’s deteriorating bubbles; we’ll see what else I can do in the future.

Title and reference in this comic to celebrate the announcement of the the new Phoenix Wright game! Looks great!

Fun fact: Victor’s working on a huge project lately, so I’ve written the text for the last several comics!

Discussion (43) ¬

Victor and I are having artistic differences!! He misses the simplicity of the old style, but I like the new detail and assure him that all the expressions and silliness will still be around. What do you guys think? Be honestttt

True. But at the same time, Victor’s right… it just looks less like The Fourth now. There are other ways I could improve, some of which I already tried out here… more creative panel structure, text bubbles, more detailed backgrounds and background characters…

I am torn because with this shading it looks a bit more like an N64 game. Which is probably where they’d be about now. And I like that, it’s sort of my original vision. The old brighter colors are more reminiscent of early games… and also the 90s cartoons I grew up with, which is also a dose of nostalgia that we try to provide with the comic. Losing that would be a shame, despite the fact that a progression is logical.

I recently did a commission in which I tried this style of shading, and I really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d try it out with the comic. Perhaps I should try to keep myself sharp with other art and leave the comic what it is.

Man, I looked at the page and was floored by the art! This is great! In some of the better manga I’ve read, the art varies with the tone of the panel. Here, this style works very well, enhancing the mystery atmosphere. However, changing the style so often seems like a very difficult thing, and I’ve yet to see a webcomic do such a thing. I’d say you should go with this style for a while and consider how it’s affecting the punch lines. Also, will you be able to keep up the pace with this style?

Also laughed at the reference in the last two panels! I’m so excited about the new Phoenix Wright game. It’s actually supposed to feature Phoenix one year after Apollo Justice. I’m wondering if they’re going to use the child-neglecting hobo Phoenix or the old Phoenix personality.

Yeah, I’m not sure I could really pull off constantly altering the style, but I like Ozi’s suggestion of using this shading for special panels. I could create more special panels than I do now. (But would any of that manga happen to be online, so I could take a look at what you mean?)

This actually didn’t take me too much longer than the comic normally does, so I could probably keep pace. Your enthusiasm is encouraging, but I still do have reservations about taking this plunge.

Sorry, it looks like my old source for manga is down. It was generally stuff to emphasize the type of humor going on in the panel. The curve ball jokes were drawn very spastically, and panels in which a character was thinking to himself “you’ve got to be kidding me” were drawn with more realistic shading and defined facial features.

Also, I just realized Posthumaid gave me nightmares.
I had a dream that i was running from zombies with apron things, but I didnt realize where my subconscious had gotten it from until when I was looking at yesterdays post.
What the heck, subconscious?

The new shading style makes Posthumous creepier than he should be in Panel 2… I’m not sure it fits with that face.
I like it, but I don’t know if the shading style fits the character designs. You may want to stick with the old look.

True, I could just use it for special panels, and just try to create more of those for visual interest. That’s a good idea. If that’s the case, and I retract this style in general, I can forgive myself for having randomly used it here because… it was creepy and a mystery? >_>

Yeah, you’ve hit upon my chief worry, which Victor inception’d into my head. Since so much of our humor is just SILLY FACE, I’m afraid the shading might mitigate that. Somehow, the more detail you have in the coloring, the less effect the expression has. I might try this again for a few more comics and see if it’s doing damage, like the Hanged Man suggested.

Yeah, I really enjoy being able to add those details. On the other hand, I could work on making my lineart more detailed. But not TOO detailed, at least at this point in the story. I’m having to really decide what I want the comic to look like, irrespective of my own artistic improvement and experiments in other areas. I feel we’ve had this Paper Mario-ish simplicity and charm up to this point (90s cartoons is another analogy). It’s defined us this far, and it would be a shame to let that feel go. But every time I look at this page, I am proud of it. This decision is so tough!

Suddenly, the comic seems a bit more epic than usual. :U
I love Scarva in panel one, the ghost in panel two, and Posti in panel four…
… and everyone else in the other panels as well.
Scratch that, the entire comic in general.
But mostly Posti in panel four. *_*

Also, looks like Scarva’s on the verge of orange fury in the last panel! xD

“And not that of a comic,” Victor would say. “Not that of OUR comic, anyway,” he would add, mournfully clicking through older pages.

If I stick with this style, I’m going to break the poor thing’s heart. He’ll get used to it, but he’s just so attached to the old style. I suppose I should be flattered that he always did like my art the way it was, even when I would have low self esteem about it.

I’m not sure how I feel about the new style, it’s like it looks the same but with more texture. It can either end up being a good direction to go or not as good as going back to the old way, but I personally can’t tell for sure with only one comic. It looks good so far at least.

I’m of the opinion to save this stuff for the drama. This is GORGEOUS art, by the way. You’re really getting wonderful at this stuff. But there’s something to be said for simplicity too; the old style lended itself well to the humor and parodic feel of the comic. This new style is great for drama, but it does kind of sap some humor out of it because I keep thinking I should be expecting epic instead of funny.
Rambling aside, I think this is wonderful and great and would mean a lot more if saved for dramatic scenes. That would also keep you from burning out too. Don’t worry about no one liking your art; you’re brilliant no matter which way you go and I’ll keep coming back to read, even if life gets busy.